Coffee Break German – Season 2

We’re delighted to announce that Coffee Break German Season 2 will launch on Monday 13th February. In this video, join learner Mark and our new teacher Andrea as they discuss what’s coming up in Season 2. Julia, our Cultural Correspondent, also joins us for the new season.

In this first lesson of the new series of Coffee Break German, join teacher Andrea and her student Mark as they review the topic of nationalities and languages. This lesson introduces the fact that, unlike in English, German normally has a different word for the nationality and the language of a country. You’ll also review the verbs sprechen and lernen,

How many times have you ordered a drink in a German café, or a snack in a German restaurant and you’ve never been quite sure about whether you’re using the correct word for “a” or “the”. Of course there’s the gender of the word to think about, but the added complication with German is the case! This episode of Coffee

In this lesson you’ll be all set for checking into a hotel – and using the correct German grammar to do so! Join Mark and Andrea as they look at the interesting topic of adjective endings in the nominative case with indefinite articles, so you’ll be able to ask for “a large room, a comfortable bed and a beautiful view

In this lesson of Coffee Break German you’ll learn to talk about your hobbies and pastimes and to say when, where and how often you do these pastimes. This topic will introduce you to the concept of the Verbklammer, the “verb brackets” which surround any adverbs in your sentence. All will become clear when you listen to Andrea’s explanations, and

In this lesson of Coffee Break German you’ll be starting to learn to talk in the past using the Perfect Tense. This tense is formed by using a part of the auxiliary verb haben (to have) and the past participle. Andrea will explain everything you need to know, and you’ll soon be saying what you did, what you cooked, what

We’ve dealt with the Perfect Tense using the verb haben, but there are some verbs which need to use sein as the auxiliary verb when forming the Perfect. In this lesson you’ll learn which verbs take sein, and how to say where you went, when you woke up, when you were born and how you travelled. It’s all about a

In this lesson of Coffee Break German you’ll learn how to give a reason – without having to worry about word order! This lesson introduces the word “denn” and you’ll be delighted to know that it does not change the word order of your sentence.

If you’ve been following our Coffee Break German lessons you can now use denn to give a reason – ausgezeichnet! However, there is another word which also means “because”, and that’s weil, and this word brings with it some challenges regarding word order. In this lesson you’ll master weil and you’ll learn how to use it in a sentence and

In this episode of Coffee Break German you’ll be amazed when you realise how far you’ve come, as you review everything you have learned so far in Season 2. Andrea and Mark talk about the topic from this unit such as cases and adjective agreements, adverbs, using denn and weil and making sure your perfect tense really is perfect! After

In this lesson we’ll be covering the topic of subordinate clauses. That sounds more complicated than it is! Basically this lesson will teach you how to make requests in German and tell people what you’d like them to do – or not do! Julia is back with another Cultural Correspondent segment and in this episode she’s talking about rules and

In this lesson of Coffee Break German we’ll be taking the dass structures a stage further and looking at other verbs which can be used in this context. You’ll learn to use a number of verbs with this structure and you’ll also learn some important rules involving grammar and word order.

​In this episode of Coffee Break German we’ll be learning how to translate “much”, “many”, “some”, “few”, and lots more quantifying words – something learners often find difficult. By the end of this lesson you’ll be able to talk confidently in German using the words viel(e), wenig(e), etwas, manche, and say how much chocolate you eat, how many glasses of

Learn how to gossip in German! In this lesson we’ll be looking at reported speech and how this works with dass. You’ll learn how to say who said what to whom, of course using the correct grammatical constructions.

​This lesson focuses on the topic of asking questions, both “open” questions using the W Fragewörter, and more closed questions which are more likely be answered by ja or nein. You’ll learn to ask questions using various words, all of which begin with the letter W, and you’ll also learn to use reported speech involving questions. Julia is back with

In this lesson we’re looking further at the dative case and specifically at verbs which need the dative like geben, schicken, schenken, antworten and helfen. You’ll also be learning to use the dative forms of the personal pronouns.

This episode of Coffee Break German introduces the verbs sein and haben and how they are used in the past. In fact, these verbs use a different tense, the Präteritum, or “imperfect” as it is often referred to in English. You’ll learn to conjugate the imperfect of sein and haben and how to use it in a variety of situations.

In the last lesson we looked at the Präteritum, the past tense form which is commonly used with verbs such as sein, haben and so on. In this lesson, we’ll be taking the Präteritum a little further and learn how to talk about what we wanted to do and what we were able to do in the past, using können